The Tarbut School (cont.)

At the end of the year we were tested both orally and by written exam and the
tests proved how much we had advanced during the year. In my memories the
third year was the highlight of the school. It had some experience and some of
the students advanced farther. One student went to study in Villna in the
Hebrew Gymnasia. We had a new challenge. We wanted to prove that we were at
least as good as the Hebrew Gymnasia in Villna. We wanted to show that the
school life in our town was more interesting and wanted to use this students as
a gauge of our progress. The teachers established a club at school composed of
three committees: a cultural committee, a library committee, and a judaical
committee. In the judaical committee we would hold trials of two natures: one
using literary sources, the other drew on disciplinary sources. A student that
became a defendant had both a defender and a prosecutor. Once, I found myself
a defendant. My crime was that I drew on one of the library books. In this
trial Mr. Menachem Rodinski, one of the headmasters of the tarbout school in
Villna was present and the speeches and special essence of the school left a
big impression on him. The literary trials held at our school became well know
in our area, and one of the trials was written about in the monthly magazine
Tarbout and was later used a sample for trials in other schools. I remember
that our first literary trial was based on a poem by Tzernechovski
by the name of Velvele. In this poem Velvele was being pulled in a
sleigh by the Meshulach during the cold winter on his way to Eretz
Israel and he became very sick and for three days was delirious with high fever
until he died. Tzernechovski (rightly so in my opinion) did not give the
details of Velvele's sickness. One of the children was the persecutor in this
trial. He was very, very upset and made a fiery speech about the father of
Velvele who didn't bring a doctor for the child, and argued that if it wasn't
mentioned in the poem then it didn't happen. He claimed that if a doctor was
brought, Velvele would have survived and made it to Eretz Yisrael. After that
there was a fiery argument about the poem. During that year the library was
filled with books written in Hebrew. There was also a world map and a map of
Eretz Israel in Hebrew. We had many fundraisers and parties from which all the
money we collected was used to buy tools for science experiments. From then on
we studied nature and physics with tools, although there were many accidents
while we were experimenting.

Whenever a student would show a special talent, he would be very encouraged.
Shmuel Spector showed artistic talent and my father was able during a visit to
Villna, to find an appropriate school for him. Many times when students left
to school to study a profession, he would stay in touch with us. The school was
much more than just a place to study, our lives were deeply rooted in it,
spiritually and ideologically. For example, when Shmuel Spector had an
artistic success he would send us pictures. In the middle of the school year
our teacher Shmoya?? received an appointment to the service and had to leave.
He returned after a few months he returned with a higher rank and we were very
proud that even the Polish army recognized his superiority. At the end of
that year, many of the children at this point came to a crossroads in their
lives. Some planned to go to Villna to continue their studies and the older
amongst us dreamed of going to Israel. After a year Schmrel Dardek left
Poland.

The school moved from the Rabunski home to other homes, amongst them Leib
Yaakov Torov home on Myadel Street. It was there that they did the final exam
and once again it showed how we had advanced, and how deeply rooted we were in
the Hebrew language. These years in school appeared to me as though dream and
reality intermingled, and on the horizons of our memory had a unique splendor.
The school continued until the outbreak of WWII which brought with it a new
period of hills and valleys. A great time was when the wife of the Commander
in Chief of the Israeli army was Badana ni Pintov. Badana returned to Kurenets
after returning since she knew Hebrew from her early childhood she had no
trouble teaching in Hebrew. The hearts of the children were conquered by her
pleasant ways. She only taught us for one year, 1924. And I remember how
bitter we were when she left, but there was sweetness in that bitterness since
the reason she was leaving was to travel with her family to Eretz Israel. The
emigration of the Pintov family was very important to the school. The Pintov
family was related to Elemenef Schulman left Kurenets when he was still a young
man. He went to the U.S. were he got very wealthy (ed. in the junk business).
I remember those autumn days of 1924 when Elemenaf Schulman came to visit
Kurenetzs. The days were cold but filled with excitement. The conversation in
every house and synagogue was about the large contribution given by (now) Max
Schulman. The biggest contribution was to the Beit Nigraf?? the synagogue of
the ???. He built a new synagogue with a large bima, a very luxurious, finely
crafted dias (?). Max was also the person who paid for the Pintov family's
trip to Eretz Israel and their home and big yard in Yaddle Street became the
property of the school. Shortly after they left, Max paid to build another
building in the yard, and from that day on the school had its own permanent
home, which was adjacent to large fields. From here it was not far to walk to
the boulder in the Savina forest and also wheat fields and meadows. A special
time were the years 1929-1932 when Druvel ni Zikovsky (ed. perished in the
Holocaust). She established a unit of Hashomer Hatzairr (a socialist, Zionist
youth movement). Her special nature was evident in everything she did. This
was the renewal of the splendid first period of the establishment of the
school, when the spirit of youth and social commitment melded into one,
wonderful essence.

In the year 1938 I returned for a visit to my parents after living in Eretz
Israel. The Germans, who later we realized were getting ready for war, brought
from Poland a large amount of agricultural products and paid a high price for
it. Poland, it seemed, had a financial renewal, and the improved financial
situation was even evident among the Jews. At the same time, there was a very
clear feeling of anti-Semitism that I experienced everywhere. For me it was
clear that this economic improvement was only a sweet pill filled with poison
and my visit passed with a very ominous feeling of peril. During one weekend I
came to the Hebrew school to talk to the town people about Eretz Israel.

Many came to listen to me. There was a new generation of students, but at the
core it was the same school of eighteen years earlier - the nucleus school
enveloped by a pasture of great hopes that launched the flourishing Tarbut
school of 1938. Although it was a year before WWII, Kurenets was already on
the edge of annihilation.

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